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## Nachricht vom 02.11.98, erstellt von greenbas@gb.greenpeace.org
## weitergeleitet durch Klaus Merkle
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Polar Bears Threatened by Dramatic Arctic Warming

AMSTERDAM, Nov 2, 1998 - As governments gather in Buenos Aires
to resume talks on how to combat climate change, Greenpeace
warned that impacts of this global phenomenon are already
appearing. The melting and retreat of Arctic sea ice is already
affecting polar bear habitat, and may spell doom for these
magnificent creatures in the long run.  

The western Arctic is warming at least twice as fast as the rest
of the globe, as predicted by scientists studying the effect of
increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The Nansen
Environmental and Remote Sensing Centre in Norway found a 4.6
percent decline in ice extent and a 5.8 percent decline in
actual ice area between 1978 and 1994.   

During a recent expedition to study wildlife populations,
Greenpeace's icebreaker, m/v Arctic Sunrise, carried scientists
and campaigners to the 'ice edge' in the Chukchi Sea, that part
of the Arctic Ocean between northern Alaska and Russia's
Chukotka Peninsula. Normally at or near the coast of Alaska, the
ship had to sail more than 150 miles north to find the edge of
the ice.

"There certainly seems to be genuine increase in temperature,
and I think the temperatures are indicating that something's
going on, " said University of Alaska Fairbanks Researcher Lori
Quakenbush, who joined the Greenpeace expedition. "There are two
things that can affect  polar bears: one is a change in the
number of ringed seals for them to feed on, and the other is a
change in the accessibility of those seals. The ice plays a big
role in both of those things."

"The food chain the Arctic is short. The algae that grows on the
bottom of the ice is eaten by zooplankton, which is eaten by
arctic cod, which are eaten by ringed seals, which are eaten by
the polar bears, and  that's about as simple as a food chain
gets. A  change in the environment can affect anything along the
chain," said Quakenbush.

Polar bears feed nearly exclusively on ringed seals which they
hunt from the ice edge, or through the pack ice itself. The
bears  do not catch the seals in the water, but wait at holes
for them to come through the ice to breathe. The retreat of the
sea ice also means that more bears may become  trapped on or
near shore in the summer and fall, and are more likely to run
afoul of humans and garbage dumps, or in the case of Alaska,
with the industrial complex associated with oil development on
Alaska's North Slope. In these encounters, the bears usually
lose.

"If they lose their ice platform, we lose their habitat, and
we're not going to have any polar bears", said Dr. Charles
Jonkel of the U.S. based Great Bear Foundation. 

Scientists aboard the Arctic Sunrise were surprised by how far
north the ice edge had retreated. However, this fits with the
findings of a recent joint Canadian/American expedition where
scientists were frozen into the Arctic ice pack aboard a
Canadian icebreaker north of Alaska for more than a year.
Scientists found the ice to be much thinner (1.5 meters at most,
rather than the 2-3 meters that would be expected), and much
warmer and less salty due to recent melting of the pack. 

Greenpeace's Arctic Expedition leader Steve Sawyer said, "The
delegates in Buenos Aires have to be reminded that climate
change is not something which will happen in the future, it is
happening now, most dramatically in the Arctic. The main cause
is clear and undisputed. Increased carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere due to the burning of fossil fuels is accepted as the
main cause of climate change by all scientists save those
working for the fossil fuel industry. Polar bears may be some of
the earliest victims, but the rest of us are not far behind."

Background on the Internet:
http://www.greenpeace.org/~climate/arctic/reports/seaice3.html
http://www.greenpeace.org/~climate/arctic/reports/bearfact.html